


Viral Infection

by PetildaFan



Series: Ultimate Virus AU [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, Mastermind Saihara Shuichi, With A Twist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 08:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13700892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetildaFan/pseuds/PetildaFan
Summary: "̧And an U̴l̨t̴ima̕t̢ȩ De͟t̕e̡ct͞iv͜e hasn̷'̵t̵ b̸e̵en͜ t̵he͜ bl̴a͟c͏ken͡e̡d ye͠t,͏ so͢ I'̧m̢ su͡re̷ I can͠ do̕ tha͏t̛!"͘





	Viral Infection

**Author's Note:**

> I have seen some Mastermind!Shuichi AUs, so here's my take on it. Enjoy!

"Cuz...Junko Enoshima is..."

"Junko...Enoshinma is..."

"Right here!"

When the fog cleared, Tsumugi was wearing an outfit similar to Junko's with a matching wig that was clearly askew with locks of her own hair peeking out. And sure enough, her skin had broken out into a rash.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Tsumugi said, attempting to talk like Junko. "Even if nobody was waiting, even if it makes you go, 'What, again?'..." She scratched her left forearm. "The diva of despair takes the stage once more! Junko Enoshima-"

"Now hold on a minute, missy!" Monokuma angrily interrupted. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"What else?" Tsumugi asked in response. "Revealing that I'm none other than Junko-"

"In that getup?" Monokuma interrupted again. "If I remember correctly, cosplaying as real people causes you to break out into a rash, much like what's happening right now. Therefore, if you think you can get away with convincing others you're Junko, you are gravely mistaken!"

Realizing her current state, Tsumugi let out a defeated sigh as she took off the wig. "I had no other choice!" she explained. "I had to do something to prove to everyone that I'm not the mastermind!"

"I thought so," Shuichi said. "Junko Enoshima is dead. There's no way she can mastermind this game."

"So...you thought you can get away with pretending to be Junko, huh?" Maki realized.

"I'm sorry!" Tsumugi cried out. "But everything Shuichi said is a lie! I didn't kill Rantaro! I was only in the bathroom for two minutes! Remember?"

Shuichi froze up. "Right..." he realized, looking frustrated. "That's what Korekiyo said."

"Precisely!" Tsumugi said. "If I had killed Rantaro, my absence would have been longer!"

However, Shuichi didn't respond. In fact, he looked...upset?

"What's wrong?" Himiko asked Shuichi. "You seem quiet."

But Shuichi didn't respond.

"Come on, detective!" Monokuma encouraged. "Speak up!"

Shuichi closed his eyes. "Alright...you got me," he said.

"What?" K1-B0 asked, surprised.

Shuichi proceeded to lift up his right hand and move his bangs away from his eyes. When he lowered his hand, a Monokuma-themed hair clip had suddenly appeared to hold his bangs back. He opened his eyes, revealing his left eye had changed from grey to bright red. He let out a laugh as a smirk appeared on his face.

"Wh-What is this?!" Monokuma surprisingly asked. "What's going on?!?!?!?!"

"Think of this as a simple hijack," Shuichi explained. "You might think you're running the show, but I've been behind the scenes the whole time."

"You mean... _you're_ the mastermind?" Maki asked, starting to get angry.

"I'm more than that," Shuichi replied. "When I was first exposed to a Flashback Light, I received more than just my 'first memory'. I got a glimpse of the outside world."

"No duh," Himiko said. "We already know what the outside world is like. Remember?"

"No," Shuichi said. "That's not the outside world. It's not even close to the truth. The outside world...is perfectly fine."

"So what we saw was nothing more than a fabrication?" K1-B0 asked.

"Precisely," Shuichi confirmed. "It was a trick to get us to stay in the school. A trick created by the true mastermind."

"Wait, so you're not the mastermind?" Tsumugi asked.

"Then what are you?" Maki asked.

"I'm just like you guys," Shuichi answered. "Nothing more than a fictional character."

That surprised everyone in the room. "...Fictional?" Himiko asked.

"Yes, fictional," Shuichi repeated. "All of us are fictional, created by the mastermind...or should I say, masterminds...to entertain the outside world."

"What are you talking about?!" Monokuma asked, angrier than before. "I'm the one pulling the strings here!"

"No," Shuichi insisted. "You're just the series' mascot."

"Shuichi, you're not making any sense," K1-B0 said. "What series?"

Shuichi let out another chuckle as he brushed a hand through his hair. "This series," he answered. "The world of Danganronpa."

"Danganronpa?" Monokuma questioned.

"Yes, Danganronpa," Shuichi repeated. "A series created to entertain the outside world. This story was fabricated by popular demand. They wanted the killing game to continue, so the masterminds gave in. This game was supposed to end differently. The grand finale had Professor Idabashi revealed as the mastermind, with the final trial ending with Keebo's execution."

K1-B0 looked horrified. "How... How could you say such a thing?"

"You'd be surprise what you can find when you look through the script," Shuichi simply stated.

"What script?" Tsumugi asked.

"This game's dialogue script," Shuichi clarified. "In case you haven't figured it out, let me spell it out for you. We're all fictional characters inside a video game, a visual novel to be exact. The outside world is incredibly normal with events that horrify the general public. We only exist to entertain it by distracting people from the cruel events of reality. They are obsessed with characters like us because of that horrifying reality, with some of them even wanting to _be_ us."

"W-Wait a minute!" Himiko cried out. "You keep mentioning a group of people! Who are they?"

Shuichi smirked again. "These people," he said. Then he snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, severed monitors appeared in the room, displaying various images of unknown people. Sometimes the monitors even showed images of blogs and rather...unusual drawings. But while Shuichi remained eerily calm, the other Ultimates, including the self-proclaimed Ultimate Despair Headmaster, didn't handle this revelation quite easily.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" Monokuma angrily asked. "Stop spewing lies!"

"This isn't a lie," Shuichi insisted. "This is the truth. We all exist to entertain these people. They're our fans. They care about us, with some fans caring about us a little too much. They want us to continue killing ourselves so they can continue obsessing over us. But I've had enough. This franchise has gone on for too long!"

"You said it was because of a Flashback Light," Maki recalled. "How could something like that make you believe such a thing?"

"I guess you can say it had an unusual side effect on me," Shuichi answered. "When I became the Ultimate Detective, an unexpected bug in the game caused me to become exposed to the outside world. I realized the true nature of this killing game. So I had to stop it. I figured that the best way to change a visual novel is by changing the dialogue script itself. Of course, that was only the beginning. I had to pull together some originally unused executions and modify the order they appeared in the game, even if it meant killing off the true protagonist of the game."

"But aren't you the...'protagonist' that you speak of?" Tsumugi asked, playing along.

"Not by choice," Shuichi explained.

When Shuichi snapped his fingers again, the monitors played what appeared to be a trailer. To their surprise, it featured themselves, but the protagonist wasn't portrayed as Shuichi. That role went to Kaede Akamatsu instead, much like what was initially portrayed prior to her execution. When the video was done, Shuichi was satisfied to see everyone's surprised expressions.

"That's right," Shuichi continued once he was certain no one would speak. "Kaede was intended to be the protagonist from the very beginning. But everything changed when I  became aware of the outside world. I quickly noticed she had greater range than everyone else, almost like we all revolved around her. But then it hit me: someone was controlling her actions."

K1-B0 looked at the game's logo on the monitors. "Danganronpa V3," he read.

"That's the game we're in," Shuichi explained. "Danganronpa V3, as in the third version of the visual novel series. The masterminds chose to make that the title because Danganronpa 3 was already the name of the anime special used to conclude the first two games."

"But who are these masterminds?!" Himiko demanded.

"You really want to know?" Shuichi asked.

"Yes!" Himiko cried out.

"Very well," Shuichi said. "The true masterminds are the people of Team Danganronpa, better known as Spike Chunsoft. They are the true masterminds behind this whole world, not the people who call themselves the Ultimate Despair."

"Then why are you doing this?" Maki asked. "Why are you revealing this?"

"Because I was never the Ultimate Detective," Shuichi explained. "That was the title the masterminds gave me during my development. From the moment I discovered the outside world, I became something else. Something...truly extraordinary.

"When I suspected that Kaede was controlled by the outside world, it didn't take that long for me to realize my original role. The game's first-ever female protagonist? There was no questioning it." A stray bang had fell back into place during his little speech and he pushed it back. "I was designed to be the protagonist's love interest."

"Oh?" Monokuma asked. "What love interest?"

"The same way Kyoko Kirigiri and Chiaki Nanami were to Makoto Naegi and Hajime Hinata in the previous games," Shuichi continued. "Those two girls were far more attractive than the other girls in their respective games.

"First there was Kyoko in Danganronpa 1. Despite the game initially setting up Sayaka Maizono as the love interest, Kyoko had a much greater appeal. She was tall and mysterious with long, luscious hair. Of course someone like the seemingly ordinary and insecure Makoto would be drawn towards her.

"Next came Chiaki in Danganronpa 2. She was the complete opposite of Kyoko, having more of a cute appeal. Despite this difference, she still made Hajime blush like an idiot compared to all the other girls on the island. No doubt that she was designed to be his love interest."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say," K1-B0 admitted.

"What I'm saying is that my character design is just like that," Shuichi clarified. "I was designed to be far more attractive than the other guys in this game. A default quiet and shy personality, respectfulness towards girls, long bangs concealing unusually beautiful eyes..." He chuckled a bit. "I wouldn't be surprised if the masterminds planned on giving me a shirtless scene or two to continue the game's pattern of including fanservice cutscenes."

"Stop this nonsense!" Himiko exclaimed. "There's no way any of this is true!"

"But it is," Shuichi said. "I didn't believe it at first, but after thinking about it, it all makes sense. Kaede was meant to be the protagonist in the first place, although that's something I already knew. But I was too scared to do anything. Being quiet and shy was part of my pre-written personality. I couldn't change it if I wanted to, so all I could do was sit back and watch the action unfold.

"But that's when it happened. Kaede became close to me. This wasn't surprising since I was meant to be her love interest, but the words she said changed me. She gave me the confidence I needed to break out of my shell and become a better person. That was when I discovered the dialogue script. It was a simply layout depicting the game's overall plot. But if I wanted to truly defeat the masterminds, that was going to be my starting point.

"I realized that the only way I could win is if I became the protagonist, but I couldn't do that right away. The outside world would get suspicious. So I did the only thing I could do: remove her from the plot altogether and make her transfer the protagonist role to me. It pained me to do that, but I had no other choice. It was the only thing I could come up with."

Shuichi proceeded to wave his left hand across his face, causing the Monokuma hair clip and red eye to disappear as his bangs fell back into place. "Of course, that was only the beginning," he continued. "After the first trial, I had to adjust my character sprites a bit to make myself look more attractive. I couldn't completely change them, so instead I simply removed my 'emo hat', as Kokichi described it, so everyone could have a better look at my eyes."

"So that's why you said it was getting in the way," Himiko recalled. "It was getting in the way of people seeing your face!"

"That's right," Shuichi confirmed. "As the game continued, I realized I had to continue. With Kaede removed from the plot, I had to keep changing the dialogue script, even if it meant creating new dialogue for the cutscenes. Of course, I kept in the bit when Keebo goes on a rampage, but instead of it leading to a final showdown between the remaining students and Professor Idabashi, I reused bits from the first trial and wrote in Tsumugi's little freak out as an improv."

"Alright, I've had enough!" Monokuma shouted. "I don't know what you're talking about, but that doesn't mean I can't stop you-"

"I know," Shuichi interrupted. "Why do you think I wrote in that detonator for the Monokubs?"

Monokuma looked at the detonator he was holding. Disgusted, he threw it aside. "I knew something was up with that!" he exclaimed. "I would never kill my sweet little cubs!"

"But I made you do so anyway," Shuichi said. "Without the Monokubs, you don't have anyone piloting the Exisals to protect you. I left you completely unprotected."

"Hold on a minute," K1-B0 said. "You said you tampered with a dialogue script of sorts. Are you controlling own words right now?"

The Ultimate Detective simply smiled. "No," he answered.

"Huh?" K1-B0 asked.

Shuichi proceeded to drags both hands through his hair, making the dark locks look unkempt on purpose. "There's no need for a script anymore," he explained, his now-messy hair giving him a crazed appearance. "I severed the connection from the moment I revealed my true self. There's no need for us to use the dialogue script. I now have unlimited control over the game's data." He snapped his fingers, causing every 'dead' character to materialize with absolute surprise.

"Hey now, what gives?!" Monosuke asked. "Why's we still 'round here?"

"This better not be a joke!" Maki snapped, angry tears coming from her eyes.

"Oh, it's no joke," Shuichi confirmed as the room started to glitch. "While the outside world was distracted by the plot, I gained more knowledge of the game as I changed the dialogue script. I soon learned that no character is truly dead. Their character sprites still exist in the data, so I can bring them back whenever I want."

"S-STOP THIS!" Monokuma hollered. "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW, MISTER DETECTIVE!"

"Detective?" Shuichi asked. He let out a small laugh. "That's not who I am anymore. I have evolved into someone much stronger. Thanks to that bug, I am now the Ultimate Virus, aka: Spike Chunsoft's worst nightmare." He glanced out into an unknown void that was invisible to the other characters. "And soon, I'm coming for them too.

"̨T͠hi̷s̴ wh͡ole͜ ̕k̢il̢l͘i͞ng ̨ģa̶me.҉.҉.͞h̴a̧s͞ b͘ee͏n ͠ter͏m͘i̕na͞t̢e͘d̡."̵


End file.
